Welcome to the Writing Yoga exercise for January. This is part of a monthly series of exercises to stretch and strengthen your writing skills.

January: A Writing Yoga Warm-Up

Before we do any physical workout, we should warm up our muscles. Sometimes our writing needs a warm-up, too. The first Writing Yoga exercise this year is warming up by tuning into nature and writing based on what you notice.

Greet the natural world

Look out the window. Step out of doors. What do you see, feel, and hear?

If it’s too cold to step outside, gaze at a photo of a natural landscape. What do you notice? How does it make you feel? How would you describe it to someone else?

Does it trigger a memory, or help you find a metaphor?

Start writing. Looking to nature often gets the words flowing.

A daily writing boost from nature

Our language and metaphors evolved from the natural world around us. Nature is an unending source of inspiration and renewal.

Plus, there’s research that shows that spending time in nature has powerful psychological benefits. It’s a stress antidote. Even looking at pictures of nature can lower blood pressure, accelerate healing, and improve your mood. Who doesn’t want that?

Why not make it part of your writing practice?

How to use this exercise

Try turning to the natural world every day this month in your writing. You can do this is many ways.

Jump-start your journaling. I often start my morning journaling by noticing the view out the window—observing the quality of morning light, the fog nestling in distant mountains, the state of the plum trees, the water in the bird bath.

Liven up your everyday writing. For fun, start including short, natural descriptions in emails: “I write this as the mist clears from the mountains…”

Embellish your fiction. If you’re a fiction writer, a pointed observation about the natural setting can establish mood quickly.

If you return to this warm-up repeatedly, you will hone your descriptive skills and tune your attention to detail.

Try it and let me know what you think!